Factors associated with service use among immigrants in the child welfare system

Khushmand Rajendran and Claude M. Chemtob

Evaluation and Program Planning, 2010, vol. 33, issue 3, 317-323

Abstract: This study investigated child, caregiver, and caseworker factors associated with greater use of family support services by immigrant families in the U.S. child welfare system. Among child factors, higher levels of internalizing behavior problems (Odds Ratio (O.R.) = 3.60), externalizing behavior problems (O.R. = 2.62) and a history of neglect (O.R. = 4.23) were associated with greater family support service use. Among caregiver factors, prior reports of maltreatment (O.R. = 6.77), a serious mental health problem of the caregiver (O.R. = 6.86), cognitive impairments (O.R. = 10.46) in the primary caregiver, the primary caregivers' history of arrests (O.R. = 6.47) and domestic violence (O.R. = 2.87), were associated with heavy service use. Caseworkers' training on cultural issues (O.R. = 61.35), their concerns over bureaucracy (O.R. = 25.38) and concern over rules and regulations (O.R. = 6.08) were also associated with greater service use among immigrant families. This research suggests that use of family support services may be determined not only by the family's demographic factors and risk level but also by caseworkers' training in cultural competence and their perception of organizational problems.

Keywords: Family; support; services; Child; welfare; Immigrants; Caseworker; training; Cultural; competence; NSCAW (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149-7189(09)00063-9
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:epplan:v:33:y:2010:i:3:p:317-323

Access Statistics for this article

Evaluation and Program Planning is currently edited by Jonathan A. Morell

More articles in Evaluation and Program Planning from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().